Jacques Druon
Lord Jacques Druon is one of the most important nobles by the time of The Three, one of the main landowners of the Kingdom, leader and founder of the Council of Nobles of the Southlands, and a political adversary to the King and his royalists. Not only a political genius, in his youth he was known for his feats in battle, being a tactical militar leader as well as an excellent swordsman, perhaps the best the Kingdom has seen in his centuries of history. Confronted with recent changes, he must put together his two sides or choose one for good in the upcoming war. Biography Jacques Druon was born to the Druon household of Tweaksally, a somewhat less-than-important noble house of the Kingdom of Men. He was one of the second older son of Lord Druon, and as so was relieved in his youth of most of the tasks that involved learning the management and politics of a noble house. This circumstance plus his native skills in swordmanship make him take the warrior path, using his abilities and his family resources to bring glory to his name and king. He starts his path to become a knight, training in the capital while also participating as squire and eventually a name himself in tournaments and competitions. He starts to become slightly famous in his area. Eventually, for his final challenge in becoming knight he goes north and slains a lizard-dragon with great fame, winning the sword that symbolized his allegiance to the knighthood, sword which he would keep till the end of his life. He joins the war in the north, and his talent and charisma make him earn the ranks quite fast, eventually becoming besides a great knight a respectable militar leader. The war agaisnt the north was specially bloody and long. While fighting, Jacques sustained many injuries, none of them particularly severe, yet some became scars he wore proudly. In the capital, his older brother died making Jacques the Lord of his household, after his father death while in his teen years. Nevertheless, he continued fighting and enjoying his knightly life, and his family at Tweaksally carry on with all the political procedures never expecting their older brother to return and settle at the family castle. Everything changed in one particularly brutal fight, when Jacques was 27 years old, in which Druon received a strong two-handed blow to his head, and a finishing club hit. This left him in a coma for several weeks, and disfigured his forehead and left side of the head. When he finally woke up he took his equipment and loyal last steed, Conquiztador, and retired to his castle for many months, traumatized for the recent events and thinking on change. The reason of the triggering of such a radical change of manners in Jacques we may never know, perhaps influenced by the PTSD or the very blow to the head; but what can be assured with absolute certainty is that he never was the same after that, changing even his personality, becoming colder and calculating. He decided to dedicate to politics, in a rash desire to acquire political power. His intelligence and already obtained fame, allowed him to do this with quite proficiency. For his services to the kingdom in the war, the newly arrived king gave him a dukedom that Jacques managed smartly. He convinced many small houses in the dukedom territory, and some other that were vagrant, to form a kind of league instead of a vassalage kind of relationship. The nobles gladly accepted and this mirage of power granted Druon their loyalty. Thus, the Council of Nobles of the Southlands was formed, and the king's already disputed territorial policy created his most formidable political adversary. The quarrelling attitude of the Council was one of the main factors to the King's appealing to consensus in his territorial decision, both intern and foreign. The Southlands soon enough entered a non-spoken conflict with the Malarkian's dukedom; with many skirmishes in the border that, though never were officially recognized, left the villages in the area in a very dangerous position. The unspoken conflict eventually also reached the Laflore dukedom, becoming the triple frontier and his surroundings snobody's land, and reaching a level of conflict similar to the North. Druon also moved strings in court and the capital, gaining influences very fast and expecting to lead the new parliamentary-type government using his social skills and manipulation abilities. His plans though were somehow frustrated with the incoming minigunman invasion and the proposed exodus. Druon and the Council took a negative stand against the proposal, expecting to finally undermine the king's authority. The completely unexpected support of Malarkian to the exodus, and the general panic forced him to retreat. The Council was disbanded and some of the nobles even decided to stay in the Kingdom despite all threats. Things wouldn't be looking nice fot Jacques if it wasn't for the fact that the King still thought of Druon as a loyal servant, to the point of offering to him the title of Lord Protector of Metropoli, that, being Metropoli the condensed kingdom was in reality the totality of the civil government and a lot of political influence. After some thinking, he decided to accept the king's offer being a far more secure option than to stay in a wasteland trying to organice panicked soldiers and nobles into a decent resistance against an all too powerful army. Using his skills of persuassion he tried his best to convince most of the households to join the exodus, with remarkable success given the circumstances. Book 1 With the arrival of the Three things become even more complicated with Druon. The nobles, many of them not accustomed to the court-urban style of living was already an inmense political issue that only Druon perhaps could have handled the way he did. He was starting to think that the deal made with the king back in the days wasn't precisely in his best convenience. The arrival of the Three and their jibbery of prophecies and supernatural powers were a foreign affair that just blow up any attempt of ruling the city properly. Nevertheless he find an opportunity in the upcoming war against the Colossi as a real possibility to start an imperium, with the main force defeated the human Kingdom and particularly the nobles guided by Druon could easily impose themselves against ther other factions. With the supernatural help of the Three, heck, they could even defeat the minigunmans. So, agains he pledged the nobles and his influences to accept the war, and was one of the closest allies to the Three's attempt to rally the forces against their common enemy. As a leap of faith and trying to inspire the soldiers and nobles tired of going around the world and losing their homes he decided to lead the army himself. Due to the far more strategical military leaders of the Fortress participation, he was relegated to an officer position, but his sole presence was enough of an inspiration to many nobles and soldiers that grew up with his tales of glory and the sword abilities he still had and showed off constantly. The army marched south, and Druon himself was in the diplomatic party that went to the miningunman capital trying to form an alliance. He fought and led fights riding Conquiztador both in the minigunman jungle and the volcanical craters beneath the desert, in which he slowly made peaces with his warrior self. His impetus and political plans were bluntly shut off when in a fatidic night soon to engage the Colossi army in the southern jungle, while in patrol, Jacques Druon was attacked. He felt a sharp pain in his right hand (the sword hand) while he was drawing it soon followed by a blast of green fire that engulfed his hand and the right flank of Conquiztador. When he was able to see again he was crawling off the back of his steed, neighing in pain, to a nearby tree, with his shield well assured in his left and now only hand. There a shadowy figure, revealed to be Blade the assassin, confronted him. With a precise swift move tried to decapitate him but Druon was fastest and defended himself with his shield. He kept attacking him and he kept defending himself. Perhaps without the bleed loss and most definitively with his other hand he may have been able to survive, unfortunately the injury and compromised position allowed Blade to finally assess a mortal blow, followed by immediate decapitation of Jacques Druon. His body and Conquiztador's remains were found the next day, creating great alarm in the army. His role as an inspiring figure was replaced as a figure of dread. The minigunmans were blamed and tension arised. His head was never found. Book 2 Due to his service to the Kingdom of Men and the Unified Army, the northern-west fortress of Metropoli, where the Lord Protector served his functions was renamed the Druon Fortress till his fall in Book 4. Book 4 The Three found out that the assassin of Jacques was Blade, after he confessed. They realized not only Blade's true allegiances with this, but also the expertice of Druon in supernatural events that allowed him to take political advantage of the prophecy situation. Personality Jacques Druon is a very smart man, calculating and manipulative. Despite his physical abilities that may cause people to consider hima dumb brute or a jock, he shows off intelligence when talking about politics, diplomacy, militar strategy amongst other noble professional ambits. He has a lot of charisma due to his looks, confidence and intelligence. As a fighting knight, Druon personality was focused on the outspoken aspects of his personalities, pn living the day by day, and not all humble with his well-deserved fame. He was mature enough to understand the importance of training, so despite having been born with sword abilities he was constantly trying to improve or at least keep the good level he had. He was known amongst people, soldiers, womans and other nobles alike, due to his youthful charisma and energy. After the accident, Jacques personality became colder. Deep inside his physical disfigurement caused some high levels of insecuritiesCategory:Fall of the Colossus